Posts Tagged ‘love’

Father, I know the calling you have given me- a calling to tell Your story. To tell anyone who will listen, about Your story of redemption, and love and forgiveness and beauty and truth and light. I see that so clearly in this moment. And believe it with all my heart.

But the darkness is everywhere. And it is suffocating. And there are times when I believe it’s lies.

Please set me free, Father. Quiet me so I can hear Your whisper. Please Lord, rescue me from myself. I want to be a vessel of Truth. You have called me to be. How can I be so blind sometimes?

I am beginning to recognize Your voice, Papa. Thank you for that. Like a newborn is drawn to his mother’s voice before he is able to clearly see her face, you have been drawing me to Your voice, Your word, Your breath. I am longing for You, Father.

And thank you for dealing with me. For not allowing me to be at peace until I surrender to Your Truth. Forgive my arrogance, my ungraciousness, my bitterness.

Use me, Father. I want to be used.

“What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.” -John 1:4-5

Like this:

My husband is not a crier. He cried at our wedding, at the births of our children, when his grandfather died and on a handful of occasions in between. And that’s about it. In general- not a crier. So when the Father’s Day card, that I gave him on Sunday, caused his eyes to well up, it caught me pretty off guard. And of course, when I saw his emotion, my eyes welled up too.

His emotion moved me. So I wanted to share…

The card I picked said “For My Husband” on the cover and “My favorite place to be is next to you. Happy Father’s Day” on the inside.

My words were:

Babe-

There were so many cards to choose from- some funny, some sappy, some sweet, most of them with lots of words and/or pictures and/or dialogue. But I loved the simplicity of this one. I love that so few words can say so much. I love the idea that amidst all of the chaos and noise and busyness of our life, one thing remains the same, unchanging and simple- our love. You are so very precious to me. It is an honor and my privilege to be the mother of your children. Thank you for being my first love, my best friend, my rock and the most amazing daddy to our two adorable, hilarious, crazy!, precious children. I will love you forever.

And on the other side:

You are an amazing daddy for how you…

– love and forgive.

– make our children smile and giggle.

– read them stories and teach them new games.

– patiently teach and explain and remind again and again until they understand.

– are always here, loving and serving and listening and adoring.

When I asked him what made him emotional he said, “I don’t know. All of it.”

And so this moment, sitting beside my sweet husband, was a reminder for me- of the power of words, the power of expression and the power of giving a simple “Thank you and I love you” to the ones that we love.

I hope you are seeing this power in your own life, one shared moment, one “thank you”, one “I love you” at a time.

I was looking through old Word documents tonight and found this letter I wrote almost five years ago. As soon as I began reading it, memories and emotions from that year began flooding into my mind. What a precious time in our life- the year we became parents.

——————–

To: Daddy From: MG and Mommy

Father’s Day 2005

Well, the list is far too long – of things we adore and appreciate about you – so we made a list of the top ten that we want to thank you for…

10. Thank you for going to work every day to provide for us and for going to school these last two years – we know it takes a lot out of you – we are very proud of how well you have done and how well you balance school work with taking care of us.

9. Thank you for not getting frustrated if we are running late or the house is a mess or dinner is not on the table – you are always so kind and forgiving.

8. Thank you for keeping smiles on our faces and laughter in our voices – for being so silly and entertaining us all the time.

7. Thank you for holding mommy when she is sad and for holding MG when she is sad. We always feel much better when you are holding us.

6. Thank you for being so humble and so quick to apologize. You are such a good example of that.

5. Thank you for protecting mommy’s purity when you guys were dating (even though there were times when you didn’t really want to) and for helping pass that legacy on to MG.

4. Thank you for being so patient with our emotions (especially mommy’s).

3. Thank you for being so open and honest with us. We feel very secure knowing that we can trust you completely.

2. Thank you for the depth of relationship that each of us has and will continue to have with you – for not viewing us as a job or a responsibility that you come home to every night.

1. Thank you most of all for loving God and for striving every day to be more like His son – because of that you have shown us a love that is greater than any other. We love you so much!